1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information filtering system and an information filtering method for restricting access to an unnecessary or inappropriate information when information is picked up from a storage device or an information communication network using electrons, light, etc. as medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
With rapid progress and development of social conditions for information communication in recent years, there are strong demands on the development of an information filtering system, which can cope with expansion of the scale of information communication network and extreme increase of the volume of communication. In this respect, the present applicant has developed an information filtering system, by which it is possible to easily pick up an information highly required or interesting for users, and patent applications have been filed as Japanese Patent Applications 8-230012 and 9-46384. The Japanese Patent Application 8-230012 has been publicized as JP-A-9-288683. The Japanese Patent Application 9-46384 is not yet publicized.
By the conventional technique as described above, it is possible to efficiently pick up an information interesting to a user from an enormous amount of information and to provide it to the user, while it is not possible to restrict access to an information, which is considered as inappropriate to the user.
To solve the above problem, it is an object of the present invention to provide an information filtering system and an information filtering method, by which it is possible to restrict access to an information inappropriate to the user when seen from the standpoint of an information manager, i.e. a person in charge of information management, and to pick up only an appropriate information.
To attain the above object, the following measures are taken in the present invention:
According to claim 1 of the present application, there is provided an information filtering system, which comprises score calculating means for calculating a score signal to quantitatively evaluate whether an information picked up from an information storage medium or an information communication network is appropriate or not for an information user or for a group, to which an information user belongs, and access control means for controlling access to the information by comparing the score signal with a threshold determined in advance.
According to claims 4 and 7 of the present application, there are provided an information filtering method and a medium in which a program for effecting the method is prerecorded in such a manner that it is readable by a computer, wherein the method comprises the steps of calculating a score signal for quantitatively evaluating whether an information picked up from an information storage medium or an information communication network is appropriate or not for an information user or for a group, to which the information user belongs, and controlling access to the information by comparing the score signal with a threshold determined in advance.
With such an arrangement as described above, it is possible to attain an effect to restrict access of the user to an inappropriate information.
The invention according to claim 2 has a structure in an information filtering system of claim 1, such that the score calculating means calculates a group profile signal to be prepared from a key word picked up from the information already in access and from a result of judgment of an information manager as to whether the information already in access is appropriate or not, and also calculates a score signal based on the key word picked up from the information, to which access is to be made.
The invention of claims 5 and 8 has a structure in an information filtering method and a medium, in which a program for effecting the method is prerecorded, of claims 4 and 7, such that the method comprises the steps of preparing a group profile from the key word picked up from the information already in access and a result of judgment of the information manager as to whether the information already in access is appropriate or not, and calculating a score signal from the group profile and the key word picked up from the information.
With such an arrangement, it is possible to attain an effect to restrict access of general users to inappropriate information based on the group profile reflecting judgment of the information manager, i.e. a person in charge of information management.
The information according to claim 3 provides an information filtering system according to claim 2, wherein the information filtering system comprises access recording means for recording key word for characterizing the information already in access, and group profile learning means for updating the group profile signal based on a teacher signal inputted by an information manager to an information with key word thereof newly recorded in the access recording means.
The invention according to claims 6 and 9 provides an information filtering method or a recording medium in which a program for effecting the method is prerecorded in such a manner that it is readable by a computer, of claims 5 and 8, wherein the method comprises the steps of sequentially recording key words for characterizing the information already in access and updating the group profile signal based on a teacher signal inputted by the information manager to the information with key word thereof newly recorded.
With the arrangement as described above, it is possible to attain an effect to accurately reflect the judgment of the information manager to the group profile signal used for calculation of the score signal and to restrict access of the user to an inappropriate information.